A hidden camera show broadcast by the Lebanese OTV channel has sparked a wave of anger against the station after it aired an episode portraying a Syrian refugee being insulted for entertainment, in a way many observers considered to be racist.
The channel, which is owned by Lebanese president Michel Aoun, broadcast the first episode of the new season of the show “Hadi Qalbak” in which a Syrian worker appeared at a go-carting circuit.
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar commented on the episode saying that the team of the program chose to empty some of its excess bile on a Syrian worker.
The episode showed the Syrian worker being stopped at a fake checkpoint by an actor and asked for the car documents and his ID.
Attempting to convince the Syrian he was stopped at a real checkpoint, the production team tried to intimidate him further by having another man pretending to be a checkpoint official approach the car and request the Syrian man to strip, starting with his shirt and ending with his pants.
One of the show’s performers also demanded the Syrian hang a red flag from his underwear and asked him to shout, “We want bread,” and “You can take me out for a cheap price,” while also threatening to arrest him.
The newspaper Al-Akhbar commented on the show’s conclusion in which Marseel Khadra, the program presenter decided to stop the beating and continue as if nothing happened, as he entered one of the go-carts and set out in “a zig-zagging youthful fashion worthy of a great man like him.”
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
